Summary

The second best secondary school in Buuri & in the top 15 in Meru County.

41% of the 2013 students are eligible for university.

The largest Kenyan certified seed potato producer.

1,500 primary school children in feeding programmes. Health care, dentistry and outreach programs.

5 new classrooms and a new toilet block.

631 Kisima employees.

WATER, SECURITY AND CONSERVATION

Water is life

Kisima continues to play a pivotal role in the management and protection of the Kisima spring. The spring supplies water to over 25,000 people in Buuri district. Water is life and every effort is being made at Kisima to ensure that water is used as sparingly as possible and all rainwater is collected and used off our greenhouses. Kisima has set aside land on the Marania River that will be suitable for the construction of a dam - this will be able to supply the local community with much needed water.

With the support of LWF we were able to construct a common intake at the 711 spring - this should result in more harmonious supply of water.

CONSERVATION

Every year the elephant corridor is becoming a more frequently used vital link between two ecosystems. This year has seen a great variety of wildlife using both the underpass and the habitat with the corridor. We are very conscious that the land within the buffer zone surrounding the corridor must be productive and effort is being put into reviewing options that will not impend the free movement of wildlife.

we are the link between two eco systems

EDUCATION

Ndurumuru

This is what school life was like in the old Ndurumuru classroom - earth floors, dark and cold - not a very productive learning environment

Work has started on five new classrooms and a toilet block. Ndurumuru was one of the schools with the poorest infrastructure and desperately needed some support and a face-lift. We are very grateful for support from Claudia Lloyd and Tiger Aspect Productions in making this possible.

We had to dismantle the old wooden classrooms, so we could start the new ones, then build temporary classrooms out of the old. This whole process was done by the parents, by hand, with a little assistance.

Gundua Secondary School

Gundua continues to be a dominant school in Buuri district, the 2014 mean score was 7.1 fantastic , we were second in Buuri district. This resulted in 58% of the students being eligible for university places - quite an achievement for such a young school.

This is life inside the new classrooms! What do you get from happy, motivated, inspired children? Results!

Gundua Primary (formally ExLewa Primary) has been the great success of 2014. The school, under the direction of Headmaster Franco Mdae, has achieved a mean score of 275 out of 500. This was the highest mean score in Buuri district for primary schools. We hope that Franco will be able to keep the positive trend in 2015 and we will do all we can to support him and the pupils.

The Gundua Foundation has played a pivotal role in education in Buuri. The success of Gundua Secondary School has resulted in all the primary school standards rising. The better Gundua becomes the more the primary schools will have to follow, and this positive trend will be led by the success of form 4 Gundua students

Feeding programmes

Kisima Foundation continues with a feeding programme in 5 schools, this has ensured that the school children have had an uninterrupted year of studies. Particular success is seen in ExLewa, the top primary school in Buuri. Thankfully all the schools have shown positive improvement - this is attributed to the feeding programme and the influence that a full tummy has on a school child’s day and their attention span. We are working closely with the DEB in Buuri, assisting with fuel when required to deliver vam papers. We hope that the efforts that are being made to improve education will have a ripple effect and we will see Buuri district become a leader in Meru County.

Without the support of the following Foundations and friends the positive trend in the schools would not have been possible. We would like to appreciate all those who have made it all possible - The Children in Need Foundation in Sweden, Embla Ladies from Norway, The Gundua Foundation, and Käppala Skola. Ulf Spendrup continues to offer support to needy students and two of the first students we got involved with are now qualified working adults, this will have huge impact in the community and they have great potential in becoming role models. Both by chance were schooling at Ndurumuru primary school, we will invite them back to the school when the the classrooms are finished to motivate and mentor the students.

broader impact on children

HEALTH CARE & ROTARY

The Gundua Health Centre continues to offer a subsidised health service to the ExLewa community. We continued working with the Rotary doctors and dentists from Scandinavia. The Rotary’s mobile clinic is targeting five neighbouring communities - Mbaria, Kithithina, Ngushishi, Manyangallo, and Kimbo. Most of the communities are in relatively good health the only challenging location is Mbaria. 2015 will be the last year that Rotary doctors will be working here but we hope that we will be able to continue with dentistry in 2016. The dentistry has had a much broader impact on the school children in Buuri district and Meru County. The dentists were able to screen schools as far away as Meru town. The only challenge is getting the children who need attention to the clinic.

We have received a large quantity of long-term family planning contraceptives. These were issued by the Ministry of Public Health and have been very kindly distributed in Laikipia and Meru by Chat (www.chat-africa.org). We would like to appreciate the commitment of the Gundua Foundation (www.gunduafoundation.org) and The RotaryDoctors of Sweden in their efforts to improve health care in Buuri district. Kisima Foundation continues with its donation of whole meal wheat flour to Wamba Hospital and the Marsabit Diocese annually. This goes a long way in helping feed children in the Wamba Hospital and its orphanage.

largest certified seed potato supplier in Kenya

SEED POTATO

Kisima is now the largest certified seed potato supplier in Kenya - we are able to produce 2,000 tonnes of certified potato seed. We are currently growing four CIP varieties Tigoni, Asante, Kenya Mpya and Skerekea. We are working with KEPHIS and assisting in National Performance Trials for the release of new processing varieties.

Kisima seed potatoes, given resale of clean seed over 3 subsequent generations, are of direct benefit to over 17,000 growers in every year (two seasons). Net benefits are in the order of USD 354 per season per grower – largely a function of increased yield. Potato production is a smallholder-dominated market with over 800,000 growers, on 158,000 ha. Potatoes are the second most important food crop in Kenya.

AGRI INFO CENTRE AND AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION

Kisima’s dedicated agricultural extension programme hosted our main field day in June. KARI were demonstrating various new wheat varieties . We were demonstrating land preparation, planting, spraying and weeding activities that were ongoing during the year. The Agri info training day was attended by approximately 1,000 farmers and over 20 exhibitors.

We also hosted Derek Roulston and IFDC who were holding a training day on the construction of potato stores and potato storage. We had planned for a second field day focusing on succession planting in December but it was postponed until early Jan 2015.

FOOTBALL

Wheatlands football club supported by the Kisima Foundation came second in the Timau zone Unity Challenge Cup. The tournament’s aim is to promote the 4Cs - Communities, Conservation, Commerce and Culture and is initiated by the Zeitz Foundation www.zeitzfoundation.org